“Innovation,” “urgency,” “personalized” and “American Dream” – the four most overused, underdefined, and glossed over buzzwords that have continuously flowed forth from Mark Johnson’s rehearsed speech given in multiple forms.

This past week Johnson was a keynote speaker for the North Carolina PTA’s annual convention in Charlotte. His presence as the state superintendent makes him a logical choice for being invited. Yet his actions and lack of actions concerning public school education as the state superintendent makes him one of the most least qualified to speak in front of parents and public school advocates. In fact, many people boycotted his talk and many tried to have him taken off the program altogether.

But from those who heard him speak, many spoke of the “prepackaged” manner and amorphous use of big cloudy words that have become synonymous with Mark Johnson:  “Innovation,” “urgency,” “personalized,” and “American Dream.”

Actually they have been so overused by Johnson that it is almost becoming his own “American Dream” to “urgently” use them in every depersonalizing public address he delivers.

How non-innovative.

“Urgency” is a word that Johnson used early in his term. Remember when Mark Johnson said the following?

“Complacency is the antithesis of urgency. So I ask that we not be complacent, and act with urgency in anything that we do.” – Mark Johnson, January 5th, 2017.

Then he issued a statement recently that asked teachers and activists to “put off” taking a “bold action” and “acting with urgency.”

“Personalized learning” is also becoming overused and underdefined. Remember this?

“New, personalized learning technology allows teachers to get the information they need about students’ progress without high-stakes testing. Especially in the early grades, progress checks can feel like a normal, engaging lesson instead of an examination. In many cases, students won’t even know we are checking in on their progress.” – Mark Johnson from “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna test it anymore!” in January of 2019 on EdNC.org.

The term “personalized learning” has become a bit of a buzzword in North Carolina – a fashionable way to possibly veil an educational reform under the guise of something altruistic. In its literal and denotative form, “personalized learning” is a rather noble concept. It would allow students to receive tailored-made lessons that match their learning styles, needs, and interests. It also requires a great amount of time, resources, and PERSONAL attention from instructors.

Time, resources, classroom space, and opportunities to give each student personalized instruction are not items being afforded to North Carolina’s public school teachers. In fact, as state superintendent, Mark Johnson has never really advocated for those things in schools. Actually, he has passively allowed for the class size mandate to proceed without a fight, has never fought against the massive cuts to the Department of Public Instruction, and devotes more time hiring only loyalists and spending taxpayer money to fight against the state board.

How “innovative.”

And Johnson’s concept of the “American Dream” might be the most nebulous of his buzzwords.

While running for office, Johnson penned an op-ed entitled “Our American Dream” in which he talked about this rather nebulous concept of the “American Dream.”

One excerpt states,

“We are blessed beyond measure to be citizens of the United States, the only nation ever to have a dream named after it. No matter who you are, your background, your neighborhood, or your race; you should be able to go to school, work hard, and reach your American Dream.”

When I talk to students from various backgrounds, their concept of what the  “American Dream” is to them is far different than the rose-colored version Johnson amorphously purports. That’s because for many of our students, the idea of someone else’s version of the “American Dream” never aligns with the actuality of their “American Reality.”

And what is “innovative” about the following which is a list of “accomplishments” under Mark Johnson’s tenure as state superintendent?

Actually there are none. But there is a long list of actions (or lack of) that have more than represented his time in the state superintendent’s office.

1. Johnson said that he conducted a “listening tour” around the state to gather ideas and to help craft innovations in classroom teaching. He said at one time that he would present those findings when that tour was over in the first summer. But North Carolinians have not really heard anything except some glittering generalities.
2. Johnson said that he would decrease the amount of standardized testing that NC would subject students. But nothing has really happened except announcements without plans.
3. Johnson celebrated the “revamped” NC School Report Card website and further entrenched our state into a relationship with SAS and its secret algorithms. Furthermore, he made sure that a system that actually shows how poverty affects school achievement is more entrenched in NC.
4. Johnson called for an audit of the Department of Public Education. And that million dollar audit to find wasteful spending actually showed that DPI was underfunded. So…
5. Johnson did a reorganization of DPI and replaced high ranking officials with loyalists from the charter industry and made them only answer to him and not the State Board of Education.
6. Johnson’s reorganization came after he won an empty lawsuit against the state board over having more powers over the DPI budget. That lawsuit lasted until the second summer of his term.
7.  Johnson seemed rather complicit with the legislature cutting the budget for DPI while he was actually taking taxpayer money to fight the state school board over the power grab that the NCGA did in a special session that gave him control over elements of the school system that the voting public did not actually elect him to have.
8. Johnson rallied for school choice advocates and never rallied with public school teachers. In fact, on May 16th of 2018, he left town. And this past May 1st he never made it to Halifax Mall even though he was in an adjacent building.
9. Johnson had such an acrimonious relationship with the state board that three of them resigned their posts before the expiration of their terms so a governor from the other political party could appoint members to oppose the agenda of the people enabling Johnson.
10. Johnson bought 6 million dollars worth of iPads for some teachers. They never requested them. And the money came from where?
11. Johnson supported both the extensions and renewed investment of two failed initiatives: Read to Achieve and the NC Virtual Charter Schools.
12. Johnson championed the Innovative School District which to date has one school. One.
13. Johnson has set up a personal website to act like a website for information about his job and initiative, but really looks more like a campaign website. And he used a hurricane as the reason for doing it.
14. Johnson has used questionnaires and surveys to literally gather information that was already known. In fact, just this past week, he told us that teachers and parents do not like all of this testing.
15. Johnson hosted Jeb Bush this past summer. Jeb Bush is a leading privatization champion of the public school systemics in the nation.
16. Johnson said he would eat doughnuts and run a mile or two for us. Doughnuts.

That’s just a lack of “innovation” in an urgently depersonalized “American Dream.”

North Carolina deserves better.

 

 

 

except to those who really know him because they know the amazing drive and spirit he embodies.

If you know me, then I have told you of the uncle whose love of teaching I plagiarized, his wife my aunt, whose roles on screen and television I get to brag about, and their daughters whom I look at as sisters.

One works in movies and has also worked on the Human Genome Project; the other skipped her senior year in high school, wrote a paper on Ezra Pound, got into NYU and after graduating became a New York Police officer serving in Bedford-Stuyvesant during the time of 9/11. After becoming injured on the job and changing careers,  she married Erich.

I think an awful lot of Erich because of many things. He is the consummate teacher and storyteller and has something I want that I can’t easily describe but it has to do with a combination of strength, love, faith, and compassion for all who have had struggles in life.

And while the story of his life that is presented in the attached article is amazing, it is surpassed by his willingness to share of himself and to be the author of a gifted life that he continues write and makes sure to include others in.

Congratulations to Erich and his lovely wife Ashley – two of the fiercest loving people I am blessed to know.

He went from prisoner to preacher, and he just earned his master’s degree from Princeton seminary.

 

From the recent Public School Forum of North Carolina’s report on top ten issues in NC education.

Source: Kris Nordstrom

This week it was reported that the College Board would be applying a score to a student’s SAT performance that is linked to that student’s socioeconomic status. From CNN.com.

“Non-profit” might be a bit of a misnomer for describing the College Board and the amount of money that it takes in for all of the different “services” that it provides. The fact that it is trying to consider other factors into its scoring process is a little interesting. But this post is not trying to debate the merits of this system in evaluating students by a national standardized test. It’s more about if outside influences has an effect on student performance. (They do).

That the SAT is skewed toward students from more affluent backgrounds is pretty well known. And the time it has taken for them to make this possible “PR” move might be taken by some as welcome. Or not.

Here is what is measured according to the College Board.

All data is aggregate and based on census tracts. Here’s what’s included:

So when looking at family income, poverty, food insecurity, educational attainment by parents, employment stats, crime rates, etc. based on both household and neighborhood stats, would that add perspective to any standardized test given in NC or even to those incredibly skewed school performance grades?

Imagine the use of an “adversity” factor from a dashboard.

And Mark Johnson loves a dashboard.

And imagine whether or not the NCGA would even give credence to such information and the effect of outside influences on schools and student performance.

Today, Betsy DeVos tweeted the following.

“Educational freedom” and “equal educational opportunities” don’t mean the same things. Not in the public school landscape in this country or especially in North Carolina.

What Brown vs. Board was outlaw school segregation, but systemic racism is still rampant, both overtly and covertly.

Let us as a state be reminded that about a year ago this happened: the Municipal Charter School Bill.

When Rep. Bill Brawley of Mecklenberg County first championed HB 514, he promoted a bill that allowed for cities to use property tax money to fund local schools. It also allowed for some select cities and towns to establish their own charter schools with enrollment preference for their citizens using taxpayer money. And because it was a local bill, it did not require the governor’s approval; therefore, Gov. Cooper could not issue a veto. The very cities and towns that “benefited” from this bill were predominantly white municipalities.

To many public school advocates, this “Municipal Charter School” bill is beyond egregious and potentially sets North Carolina back decades as far as treating all people equally. It exacerbates an already fractious situation that has endured gerrymandering (which is making its way to the Supreme Court), a Voter ID law, cowering to big industry instead of protecting the environment, and giving massive tax cuts to corporations that hurt public services.

Simply it would allow for the systemic re-segregation of student populations in the Charlotte-Mecklenberg School System under the auspicious call for “school choice.”

Then this happened in December:

During a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly to supposedly iron-out details for the new Voter ID amendment, a Technical Corrections Bill called SB 469 removes the provision for the original HB 514 that stipulated its “local bill” status. The ramifications of that were enormous.

What this meant was that HB 514 may no longer be a local bill that only affects one of 100 counties in North Carolina. It allowed for HB 514 to be a statewide mandate. The use of property taxes for local municipal charter schools will now be available to all counties.

The implications are now even more far-reaching when looking at how student populations could now be even more segregated all over the state.

Don’t think this is in the spirit of Brown vs. Board of Education.

Many in Raleigh who defend the ill-tempered reforms that have been introduced over the last eight years point to the NEA’s calculations of “average” teacher pay as evidence of “progress” in the public education system due to those reforms.

But will they give the same credence to the the National Education Association for this report as they do for average state salaries?

This week the NEA released its report cards for each state’s handling of charter schools. As expected, North Carolina did not receive a stellar grade.

Each state was graded by  the same criteria. North Carolina achieved a 48/100 which is an “F”.

This grade makes a lot of sense as the criteria were measured by examining the laws, statutes, and legislation of the state. And it makes sense in that the low number of points (or even zeroes) given can easily be explained by those who have followed public education these last few years.

It is true that a for-profit entity cannot apply to open a charter school here in North Carolina, but they can be contracted by those who do apply to open a charter sometimes on behalf of the for-profit entity.

Think of the Innovative School District and look for the political contributions made by for-profit entities to politicians who can help craft legislation to enable these for-profit entities to get contracts with charter schools in NC, a state that has no cap on how many charter schools can exist in the state.

Look at Team CFA (based in Oregon) and its founder, John Bryan. He has been donating money left and right to specific politicians and PAC’s here in North Carolina to extend the charter industry including Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (through a PAC). He spear-headed the attempt to win the contract of the ISD school in Robeson.

Look at Charter Schools USA based in Ft. Lauderdale. It is run by Jonathan Hage whose political contribution to politicians in North Carolina are rather numerous. Just look at Followthemoney.org.

Local school systems (LEA’s) have no control over the charter schools in their districts, but have to give money to those charter schools. Next year Wake County will have to give over $45 million to charters in Wake County but have no oversight over those charters who report to DPI, and DPI is run by a man enabled by the very people who want unrestricted charter school growth.

And look at what happens to a charter school when it opens in a rural area. It can cripple the funding for the very few traditional public schools in that small district.

If anyone needs to look up how well the two virtual charter schools are doing in NC, then it will not be hard. In fact, they are two of the lowest performing schools in the state.

North Carolina’s grade is a valid one. So, will people like Phil Berger, Mark Johnson, and Jerry Tillman dismiss this report? Probably.

 

 

“You expect at least eight weeks paid vacation per year because that is what the taxpayers of North Carolina gave you back when you were a poorly compensated teacher.” – Sen, David Curtis in May of 2014 in response to a teacher letter.

“I suspect that most people, if told they could work 10 months a year doing something they love, and make $54,000, would leap at the opportunity. Most would be content, if not elated. Very few, I suspect, would be protesting.” – Charles Davenport in the News & Record on May 5th, 2019 in reference to the May 1st teacher march and rally.

AP Exams will end this week, and soon after Memorial Day many schools will enter long exam periods for all students – both state exams and teacher-made exams. That means that summer break for students and schools is approaching.

Many critics of public school teachers and advocates who are asking for fully funding public schools seem to rely on an argument that teachers only work ten months out of the year and get their summers as “paid vacation.” And there is really no truth to that claim.

True, there will not be any traditional classes on campuses, but much is going on in the summer.

In fact, the first week of summer there will be on my campus:

• Offices open to conduct business.
• Student Services open for registration and transcript analysis.
• Teachers on campus conducting various tasks.
• The yearbook staff will at camp in Chapel Hill working on next year’s edition.
• Rooms being cleared and cleaned.
• Coaches will be conducting camps for community youth.
• State sanctioned workouts will happen on fields and the weight rooms.
• Summer school classes will begin to help students regain credits.
• Some teachers back from grading AP tests and fulfilling end-of-year duties.
• Some teachers will be in professional development classes in various places.
• Some teachers will be prepping for new courses they are to teach because populations change and numbers of sections change.
• Some teachers will be preparing for National Boards.
• Some teachers will be moving materials on campus to facilitate summer cleaning and maintenance.
• Some teachers will be helping interview potential new teachers and then helping those hired get more acclimated with the campus.
• Some teachers will be taking inventory.
• Some teachers will just come to campus to get work done to prepare for next year like send items to print shop or get websites and databases ready.

What teachers have are 10-month contracts. What Curtis and Davenport call a “vacation” is actually unpaid time that is spent by many getting renewed certification, professional development, or advanced degrees—all of which are paid with teachers’ own money that gets taxed by the state.

In reality, those “summer vacations” are actually periods of unemployment in which many teachers still do lots of work.

If people like Curtis and Davenport do not like that fact that teachers must abide by a 10-month contract and not a 12-month one, then they can do one thing that really is quite complicated and goes against the very fiber of the current NCGA and many in our communities: get the state legislature to send students to school for eight more weeks.

That’s right. Get the legislature to dismiss the tourist industry lobbyists and ask the state and local school systems to help finance the needs to allow for more school days – monies for physical facilities, supplies, resources, etc.

As a teacher, I would be there. Students could learn more and may not suffer from a summer “slump” in retaining things they have learned. If businesses are willing to pass on summer employees and families are fine with students going to school for 220 days a year instead of 180 (even more if breaks are not taken as much throughout the year), then let’s do it.

But until that happens, the argument that teachers get all this “paid vacation” really does not add up.

Besides, so much happens on a public school campus during the summer by people who already extend themselves beyond their contracts.

 

 

If Raleigh is going play around with Civic and Economics classes to include lessons on personal finance, then can they also tweak the curriculum to make sure and cover real life applications of civics and economics as well?

Could they include the fact that North Carolina is the only state in the country that does not allow a woman to change her consent to sexual intercourse?

North Carolina may remain the only state in the country where someone cannot be charged with rape for continuing to have sex with a partner who told them to stop. It stems from a 40-year-old legal precedent.

Another bill was introduced to change this heinous loophole in defining sexual assault this year.

It never made it our of committee.

Could they include a lesson on how it is not illegal for someone to have sex with an incapacitated person if that person responsible for “causing that condition?”

Could they also make sure that students know that we as a state have not outlawed “tampering” someone’s drink? You can literally “spike”someone’s drink and never be charged for it because it is not illegal.

Could they make sure that the use of extreme gerrymandering is covered? Especially in NC is that craft been practiced to the point of unconstitutionality based on racial divides.

Civics students could learn how to draw a gerrymandered district . For instance,

No. That is not an internal organ. It is not a paramecium. It is not an ink blot. It is not a lake on a map. It is a real district. Specifically, it’s the 12^th congressional district. It somehow connects Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High-Point, Charlotte, and multiple sites in between in a way that only crafty politicians can do. In fact, this district was called the most gerrymandered in the nation.

Could the students learn the difference between fabricated voter fraud and actual voter fraud? Maybe we could use former Gov. Pat McCrory’s facade of a lawsuit in which he screamed voter fraud as an example of fabricated whining and compare that to the recent Mark Harris scandal which actually was proven to be true.

Could students maybe revisit the economic impact of HB2 on the state? That would be a great way of showing the relationship of civics and economics. Students could see how an unfounded claim of bathroom assaults by transgender people led to many an economic consequence.

And don’t let the irony of the fact that the person who wrote the bill is now the new republican nominee for the 9th Congressional District that has to have a new election because of Mark Harris get lost in the process.

That’s some civics for you.

In 2013, the state of North Carolina started using a value-added measurement scale to help gauge teacher effectiveness and school performance. Developed by SAS which is headquartered in the Triangle area of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, EVAAS collects student data and creates reports that are used to measure teacher and school effectiveness.

EVAAS stands for “Education Value-Added Assessment System.” For teachers, it is supposed to give an indication of how well students are supposed to do in a given year on the tests that are used on evaluations. (Do not let it be lost on anyone that “EVAAS” scores were just released at the end of most schools’ first quarter after half of the block classes have already completed more than half of the curriculum’s work).

EVAAS has been the subject of a lot of scrutiny. It deserves every bit of that scrutiny. Why? Because the algorithms that it uses to come up with its calculations and reports are like a tightly held secret – by a private entity that receives money from DPI.

During the 2017-2018 school year, State Superintendent of Public Schools Mark Johnson released a video to all public school teachers announcing the new revamped state school report card system.

Here is a frame that is closed captioned –

It says, “Recently, I launched the brand-new website for school report cards: schoolreportcards.nc.gov.”

That means it should be controlled by the state, correct?

Put that into your search bar and you get http://www.ncpublicschools.org/src/.

It’s not the actual report card site – just a “Welcome” page. Notice that it has a link to the actual school report card site along with the following text:

North Carolina’s School Report Cards are presented two different ways, designed to meet the needs of all users. An interactive, easy-to-navigate section was redesigned in 2017 and is available here. This citizen-friendly website addresses the need for quick reference on topics that are most important to parents and educators. A more analytic section is intended for those who prefer a more detailed view of the data. The two areas, both designed and hosted by SAS and available to anyone, include printable versions of the North Carolina School Report Card snapshots.

The actual “School Report Card” website has a different domain name.

It’s https://ncreportcards.ondemand.sas.com/src.

Once again, it’s SAS.

Then in the final days of April of 2019, Johnson introduced a new website designed for financial transparency.

When one accesses that NC School Finances website, this screen appears:

Look at the web address. Yes, it’s housed at SAS.

Many outlets such as one from WRAL have shown how flawed this “dashboard” is.

So, SAS controls/houses/computes the following:

• EVAAS scores
• School Performance Grades
• Public School Financial Dashboard

Or rather, how teachers are measured, how schools are measured, and how financial data can be manipulated.

It seems rather ominous that three important components of how public education is perceived in NC is controlled by a private entity taking public money but not really sharing how they come to conclusions and data points that guide legislation in Raleigh.

Doesn’t seem right.

Because it’s not.

 

Last Friday, WRAL posted an editorial board opinion on its website entitled “Editorial: Private school vouchers to be even more open to corruption, waste.”

It stated,

Let us be clear, we DO NOT oppose private school vouchers. We DO strongly believe there should be reasonable and responsible accountability and transparency in how these tax dollars are spent. It is tragically lacking today. The new Senate-passed bill makes it worse. It is an invitation to corruption and waste.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

As the state Senate voted to expand eligibility for the voucher program – mostly because a good chunk of the millions set aside for the program has been going unclaimed – the House of Representatives budget weakens what is already the least accountable private school voucher program in the nation.

The budget bill withdraws the very limited required testing to track students’ achievement. Some of the money intended for paying for private school tuition can now be diverted to marketing – by a non-profit organization with close ties to the legislature’s leadership. The annual third-party evaluation of the program would be ended.

What the op-ed is talking about mostly is transparency and it is CORRECT in doubting the intentions of the people in the NCGA who promote it.

Apparently Mike Long, the president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, did not take WRAL’s op-ed well. And according to a report from NC Policy Watch’s Billy Ball, Long issued a rebuttal.

“OUR money.

Those are the words of the Capitol Broadcasting Company’s (CBC) latest attack on North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program. The program currently enables over 9,600 students from low-income and working-class families in North Carolina to attend the private school of their parents’ choice.

These families are taxpayers, too. But CBC is protecting systems and the status quo, playing politics, and demonizing educational choice.

Here is the downright disrespectful and harmful language used by CBC’s editorial board in full:

If these parents were spending their own money, Clark might have a case. But these parents are not spending their own money, it is OUR money, tens of millions of dollars’ worth. We not only have the right, we have the responsibility to be sure that OUR tax dollars are being spent as intended – to educate North Carolina children.

“Our money” is nothing more than a disingenuous attempt to turn one group of people—those of us paying taxes but not using a “scary” voucher—against another group of people—those of us paying taxes who use an Opportunity Scholarship.

Even Governor Roy Cooper says Opportunity Scholarships are “an expense that we should stop” while talking about investing more in education. Apparently to the governor, poor and working-class families are nothing more than “an expense.”

Divide and conquer is his plan, pitting those families against the state that thinks it knows best where parents should send their kids to school.

The governor and CBC are demanding that “our money” shouldn’t be allocated to “these parents” unless the state controls every penny, regardless of the accountability requirements already in place, the positive impacts schools of choice have on their students, and the overwhelming support for the Opportunity Scholarship Program from the parents using it.

Thousands of families on the Opportunity Scholarship Program (taxpayers, mind you) dig into their own pockets every month to cover what’s left in tuition and fees after the Opportunity Scholarship has provided them a much-needed boost. Yet, there is a real disconnect when CBC questions if “these parents were spending their own money.”

That rebuttal deserves a rebuttal.

Long’s rebuke actually reaffirms the concerns that WRAL’s editorial board brings up in their op-ed about the lack of transparency and ultimate intent in the NCGA’s Opportunity Grants.

There has never been any empirical evidence that the vouchers actually work. Maybe PEFNC would like to point to NC State’s study last year, but that study ultimately did not make conclusions on the veracity of the vouchers. In fact, it said that the Opportunity Grants need much more research as it is hard to assess the program.

Or they might point to “satisfaction surveys” like Joel Ford of PEFNC did in an op-ed on EdNC.org. If that is the only variable by which they can measure the effectiveness of the grants, then that is absolutely weak.

Long also states, ” Thousands of families on the Opportunity Scholarship Program (taxpayers, mind you) dig into their own pockets every month to cover what’s left in tuition and fees after the Opportunity Scholarship has provided them a much-needed boost.” 

Opportunity Grants are for $4200. First, it makes one want to have a list of highly rated private schools and their tuition fees because that amount of money will not even cover a third of costs at a respected school for one school year let alone supplies and books. And Long even says that these  families have to dig into their own pockets every month to cover other expenses.

What he is saying is that giving money to people to send their students to private schools causes them to spend more of their own limited funds to help make that happen when the money could have gone to the very public schools that already serve them and are free for them to attend. Doesn’t that seem odd?

But it’s all about school choice – so much that people like Long and other lawmakers will sacrifice revealing the truth about the lack evidence of success with the appearance of a moral high road and empty rhetoric.

And Long spends a lot of time talking about “taxpayer money.” Of the schools in NC that receive vouchers, over 90% of them are religious schools. In fact, the top ten “voucher” schools in NC are all religiously affiliated.

From page 8 of the Public School Forum of NC’s report Top Ten Education Issues of 2018:

Churches and religious organizations are generally exempt from income taxes or “business” taxes. But many of them are receiving “our tax money” to benefit their non transparent use of curriculum that may not even align to state standards.

Wonder if Long sees a double standard there.

WRAL did.